Allison Williams On Dad Brian: “He Cares So Much About Journalism”

The Girls co-star and daughter of suspended NBC Nightly News managing editor and anchor Brian Williams broke the family silence during a Q&A with Seth Meyers on Wednesday night at New York’s 92nd St. Y, setting the Twittersphere ablaze with her comments.

Observers wondered whether Allison Williams would cancel the long-scheduled event rather than face (or dodge) inevitable questions about her father. Instead, Meyers introduced the subject early on, as her mother watched from the audience at the packed Upper East Side venue. Meyers, according to many posts and later news reports, referred to the “difficult time” her family must be navigating.

“Yeah, this has been a really hard time,” she replied. “We have also been very, very lucky, counting our blessings. We have our health, we have each other.” Conceding — no surprise — that the recent turmoil has been “tough, obviously toughest on my dad,” she insisted, according to the many posts, that “I know you can trust him…One thing this experience has not done is shake my trust and belief in him as a man. He’s a really good man, he’s an honest man. He’s a truthful man. He has so much integrity. He cares so much about journalism. And yes, he’s a really good dad, but I know you can trust him because, as any good daughter does, I have tested him on that.”

That candid reference to the spotlight she shares with her father because of her role in the often-explicit HBO series prompted laughter from the sympathetic audience, according to reports. “My dad has always been there for us 100% of the time, even sometimes before we knew we needed him,” Williams added. “And so this, to be here for him, is the least we can do.”